In a regulatory filing, GMS director Ronald R. Ross disclosed the purchase of 100,000 common shares of the company in two transactions of 50,000 shares each. The first transaction was bought at $15.2895 per share, while the second was bought at $16.0209 per share.

In a regulatory filing, GMS Inc. director Ronald R. Ross disclosed the purchase of 100,000 common shares in the company in two transactions of 50,000 common shares each. The first transaction was purchased at $15.4732 per share, while the second was bought at $15.779 per share.

GMS Inc. price target cut to $21 from $31 at Baird. Baird analyst David Manthey maintained a Neutral rating on GMS Inc but lowered his price target to $21 from $31. In a research note to investors, Manthey contends that GMS has underperformed since reporting Q2 results last week that were slightly below estimates, and that with wallboard volumes declining for a fourth straight quarter, he believes investor concerns around the competitive environment will likely linger, with continuing questions around GMS' ability to achieve both price and volume growth. Despite a seemingly attractive valuation, Manthey believes caution remains warranted.

GMS Inc price target lowered to $26 from $34 at SunTrust. SunTrust analyst Keith Hughes lowered his price target on GMS to $26 after its Q2 results, saying that while the company's revenues were "solid" and organic growth was "good", the gross margins were "weak" on soft wallboard volumes. Hughes keeps his Buy rating however, noting that the company's operations have improved, and also sees its valuation as "exceptionally cheap" because investors incorrectly perceive it getting "wrongly caught up in the great housing debate".

GMS Inc. price target lowered to $25 from $30 at Barclays. Barclays analyst Matthew Bouley lowered his price target for GMS Inc. to $25 to reflect a 2% reduction to his fiscal 2019 EBITDA estimate as well as a more conservative multiple assumption "reflecting uncertainty around wallboard volume recovery and consolidated gross margins." The analyst, however, keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. He continues to forecast high single-digit base business revenue growth in the second half of 2019 driven by strength in Ceilings, Steel Framing and Wallboard pricing.

Mike Callahan, President and CEO of GMS, stated, "We delivered a strong fiscal second quarter highlighted by record net sales and adjusted EBITDA. Our organic sales increased 8.7% year-over-year, reflecting broad-based sales growth across each of our product groups. Adjusted EBITDA increased more than 60%, reflecting contributions from the Titan acquisition, our continued focus on price discipline and our steadfast commitment to operational improvement. Driven by improved profitability, we generated strong free cash flow of $88 million during the second quarter, which allowed us to reduce our net leverage nearly a half turn from 4.2 times to 3.8 times." Callahan continued, "As we look toward the second half of the fiscal year, we remain confident in the health of our end markets and see continued growth opportunities across our product portfolio. We feel very good about our leading North American platform with significant scale advantages and a well-balanced portfolio built for growth and value creation. I am also pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved the repurchase of up to $75 million of the Company's common stock. We plan to opportunistically purchase our common stock while at the same time continue with our stated strategy to use expected operating cash flows to reduce our net leverage to under 3.0 times by the end of fiscal 2020."

The company announced that its Board of Directors has approved on November 30, 2018 the repurchase of up to $75M of the company's common stock. The repurchases will be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices or in negotiated transactions off the market. The company has approximately 41.9M shares of common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis as of October 31, 2018.

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